This past summer, our local club, COOKEN, in central Ohio, pitched in to buy a K4KIO hexbeam for the contestors among us. This generous support has resulted in nearly 6000 qsos being made so far this year in various special events and contests.

For example, last weekends CQWW SSB DX Contest, using the hexbeam at 30 ft, a small amp (400w) loaned by a member, and four operators/loggers resulted in 731 QSOs and 777,337 points, with all but 150 of those contacts made on 10-15-20m, and the remainder made on 160-80-40m.

What a blast!

And what better way to get new ops introduced to hf operating, members who dont have an hf yagi at home, and/or to bring in contestors from the area for a little group fun.

Ive been a contestor for 35 years, and a ham for 55 years, but group contesting is by far the most fun Ive had in that time.

You want to perk up your club? Then beg, borrow or buy a small beam, find a member willing to host a contest or two, and go to town. You definitely DONT need a KW, 75 ft tower, and stacked arrays to do a great job on the air!

Guys want to help out, often have an antenna ready to go, and are glad to help out. Plus its always interesting to see how different antennas perform.

We usually use verticals for our special event stations, usually on 40m ssb, and make 125-150 contacts in a casual days operating. On FD, taking advantage of some 70 ft trees, we hang an 80m horizontal loop for 80-40. With another club, we used a windom ( OCF dipole) at 35 ft on a hillside sloping down to the west and cleaned up on 40m CW. There is no single answer for success. Also have had good results with a fritzel multiband dipole at 40 ft.

Surprising results with simple antennas and 100w.

Our club won the Ohio Section high score last year on the CQWW 160m CW Contest with 100w to a 40 ft tall, quarter wave inverted L, with 22x65 ft radials.

Trying new contests, from new locations, appeals to a group of members, and allowed us to make 6210 contacts during 2012 in 12 different contests/events.

Identifying possible locations for good antennas - and nice equipment to use -is an on-going challenge. Ohio has one of the few Worked all state parks" contests. We used a members cabin for years, and next year will be looking to rent a cabin for the weekend and try an even more exotic location.

Copyright 2000-2018 eHam.net, LLC
eHam.net is a community web site for amateur (ham) radio operators around the world.
Contact the site with comments or questions.
WEBMASTER@EHAM.NETSite Privacy Statement